December 2024 – SouthWest Writers

Monthly Archives: December 2024

2024 New Releases for SWW Authors #6

Posted on December 17, 2024 by

Daniel Pedrick, Roger Floyd, Patricia Gable, Thelma A. Giomi, and Rosalie Rayburn are just a few examples of the genre-diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW). Their releases couldn’t fit in the 2024 interview schedule, but look for 2025 interviews or updates for some of these authors.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2024 releases is included at the end of this post.

Liv’s Story: An Iowa Girl’s Rebellion (June 2024) by Daniel Pedrick. Liv grew up in Elk Horn, Iowa in an era filled with racial prejudices and limiting ideas about women’s roles in society. But she struck out on her own early in life, crossing barriers and diving without reservation into activities considered dangerous for young ladies. Racism in 1950s and 1960s America, middle-class hypocrisy, the plight of unwed mothers and the suffering of the mentally ill sculpt her deeply. Her connection to British Honduras (later known as Belize), and her wedding to a kind, older English chap enable her to find happiness. Korean War chaos, Japanese pearl diving, Cuban underwater follies, and cave diving in Belize are just some of the adventures found in this novel.

You’ll find Dan on rmkpublications.com and Liv’s Story on Amazon.

Explorer (Part I of the Anthanian Imperative Trilogy, August 2024) by Roger Floyd. The planet Anthanos is dying. Its orange-red sun is in the early stages of becoming a red giant. As the sun grows closer and closer, the planet grows hotter and hotter. Eventually the sun will go nova and destroy Anthanos. Scientists discover another planet to colonize outside their solar system – one with an appropriate temperature, plenty of water, an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and vast areas of solid surface to live on. So they send their best team to explore, but what those explorers find is much more than just the lovely blue planet they were expecting.

Look for Roger on his website RogerFloyd.com. Explorer is available on Amazon.

The Right Discovery (Book Three of The Right Series, November 2024) by Patricia Gable. In this middle grade novel, a dangerous blizzard stops everything in a small town. Five friends are trapped in a large house without their parents. They watch a movie and play games. When they play hide and seek, the danger begins! Where is Willie? Suddenly a large tree hits the house and knocks out the electricity. Will they be able to find him? A voice calls out from behind a basement wall, “Help me!” The adventure begins. History comes back to life. The friends work together and in the end the town benefits. And could there be a Guardian Angel involved?

Visit Patricia’s author pages on Amazon and SouthWestWriters.com.

Weaving Winter’s Magic (November 2024) by Thelma A. Giomi. This book of poetry is a meditative journey through the holiday season. The poems bring light and life into the long darkness of December. Her elegant words are both calming and revitalizing as she weaves spiritual magic through winter landscapes. Weaving Winter’s Magic has been called “true wisdom, true blessing, and true life” that “creates a profound message of hope—that we can create the world anew.”

You’ll find Thelma on ThelmaGiomi.com and her Amazon author page. Weaving Winter’s Magic is available here.

Windswept: A Digger Doyle Mystery (November 2024) by Rosalie Rayburn. Twenty-five years is a long time to keep a secret. But telling the truth can be deadly. Windswept, the third in the Digger Doyle series, finds intrepid reporter-turned-detective Elizabeth “Digger” Doyle reporting for a feisty little online newspaper. Digger brings her fierce energy and dedication to the struggling publication as she grapples with backdoor politics and the powerful oil and gas industry while investigating the death of a New Mexico State Representative who made powerful enemies with her push to ban new oil drilling.

Look for Rosalie on her website RosalieRayburn.com and blog, and on Facebook and her Amazon author page. Windswept is available here.

SWW Author Interviews: 2024 Releases

Tim Amsden
Love Letter to Ramah

Michael Backus
The Heart is Meat

Rachel Bate
Hatch Chile Willie

Irene Blea
Dragonfly

E. Joe Brown
A Cowboy’s Fortune (Kelly Can Saga Book 2)

Gency Brown
A Right Fine Life

Mary Lou Dobbs
Badass Old White Woman: How to Flip the Script on Aging

Lynn Ellen Doxon
The Moonlight Cavalry

Robert D. Kidera
Burn Scars

Kendra Loring
The Saga of Henri Standing Bear

William Murray
Worn Out Saddles and Boot Leather

Jeff Otis
Raptor Lands: The Story of the Harrowing Return of the Dinosaurs

Léonie Rosenstiel
Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp

KLWagoner150_2 KL Wagoner loves creating worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Her current work in progress is The Last Bonekeeper fantasy trilogy and short stories in the same universe. A member of SouthWest Writers since 2006, Kat has worked as the organization’s secretary, newsletter editor, website manager, and author interview coordinator. Kat is also a veteran, a martial art student, and a grandmother. Visit her at klwagoner.com.

2024 New Releases for SWW Authors #5

Posted on December 10, 2024 by

Zachry Wheeler, Larada Horner-Miller, Dr. Rinita Mazumdar, Mike Gerrard, and Mark Fleisher are just a few examples of the genre-diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW). Their releases couldn’t fit in the 2024 interview schedule, but look for 2025 interviews or updates for some of these authors.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2024 releases is included at the end of this post.

Zachry Wheeler published four short stories in 2024 as part of his Twisted Simulations horror series. In Hitchens Manor: A Haunted House Parody (October 2024), two centuries of hauntings have given Hitchens Manor a ghastly reputation. Resident ghosts have maintained a cycle of death, sale, rinse, repeat. The new owner is expected to suffer the same fate…until they meet him. The Asteroid Cafe: A Sci-Fi Horror Short (October 2024) brings us Kevin, who has a front row seat to the end of all things. It’s the off-season in lower orbit and the satellite hotels are mostly empty. For Kevin, it’s the perfect time to enjoy a long vacation at The Asteroid Cafe, but then Armageddon ruins it all.

Calum’s Descent: A Sci-Fi Horror Short (October 2024) takes us to a prison where the only way to escape is to first escape reality. Calum has been locked in a moon prison for thirteen years. The days are long, the future is bleak, and his mind has reached a breaking point. It’s time to escape. But to do so, he must confront a living nightmare. In Bandolier (November 13), betrayal is the deadliest of games. Burke is a member of the Mako Brotherhood, one of the most notorious criminal gangs in the galaxy. He is summoned to a secret haven for an important mission, but the sect is unaware his loyalty has been brutally compromised.

Sign up for Zachry’s newsletter at ZachryWheeler.com and learn about the freebies he has to offer. Look for his books on all major retailers including Amazon.

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry (November 2024) by Larada Horner-Miller. Looking for connection during life’s struggles? Discover a poetic path through pain and loss to the other side of hope and perseverance. With reflections on times of real vulnerability and authentic readability, this moving collection covers tragedy, fun, travel, a spirit coyote, the love of nature, and living. And through whimsical moments and unlimited dreaming, shared lessons can turn any challenge into triumph.

You’ll find Larada on her website LaradasBooks, her Etsy shop LaradasReadingLoft, and her Amazon author page. Connect with her on Facebook.

Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing (Community Publishing, October 2024) by Dr. Rinita Mazumdar. The media is filled with stories about global conflict with extraordinary violence and disdain for life. Society indeed seems like its on the brink of collapse with everything that makes us human being threatened by war, genocide, disease and famine. From Rinita Mazumdar, PhD comes a translation, with additional commentary and analysis, of Sandip Mukherji’s Noakhali 1946.

Unspoken Hindu Genocides and Ethnic Cleansing is available on Amazon.

Behind Bars: True Crime Stories of Whiskey Heists, Beer Bandits, and Fake Million-Dollar Wines (Prometheus, October 2024) by Mike Gerrard. Award-winning travel and drinks writer Mike Gerrard takes readers on a centuries-long journey highlighting the most bizarre — and expensive — alcohol-related crimes all while revealing the inside world of spirits, how they have been distilled, legislated, imbibed, and infused into our culture for hundreds of years. Featuring colorful tangents and detailed appendices, Behind Bars will whet the whistle of any curious reader.

Look for Mike on MikeGerrard.com, Facebook, and TwitterX. His books are available on all major retailers including Amazon.

Persons of Interest: Poetry & Prose (Mercury HeartLink, October 2024) by Mark Fleisher. “Persons of Interest” is a law enforcement term to describe someone who is involved in an incident, not yet a suspect but may become one. In Mark Fleisher’s work entitled Persons of Interest, he investigates, follows up clues and names names. Fleisher, who enjoys dabbling in the kitchen of his Albuquerque home, cooks up a Baker’s Dozen each of poems and stories, fiction and nonfiction alike. The menu ranges from tales of his childhood, through college days and Air Force experiences to more contemporary times.

You’ll find Mark on Facebook and his Amazon author page.

SWW Author Interviews: 2024 Releases

Tim Amsden
Love Letter to Ramah

Michael Backus
The Heart is Meat

Rachel Bate
Hatch Chile Willie

Irene Blea
Dragonfly

E. Joe Brown
A Cowboy’s Fortune (Kelly Can Saga Book 2)

Gency Brown
A Right Fine Life

Mary Lou Dobbs
Badass Old White Woman: How to Flip the Script on Aging

Lynn Ellen Doxon
The Moonlight Cavalry

Robert D. Kidera
Burn Scars

Kendra Loring
The Saga of Henri Standing Bear

William Murray
Worn Out Saddles and Boot Leather

Jeff Otis
Raptor Lands: The Story of the Harrowing Return of the Dinosaurs

Léonie Rosenstiel
Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp

2024 New Releases for SWW Authors #4

Posted on December 3, 2024 by

David L. Harrison, R. M. Tembreull, Sequoia Rudolph, Heidi Marshall, and Gary Lucero are just a few examples of the genre-diverse membership of SouthWest Writers (SWW). Their releases couldn’t fit in the 2024 interview schedule, but look for 2025 interviews or updates for some of these authors.

A list of interviewed SWW authors with 2024 releases is included at the end of this post.

Children’s writer David L. Harrison authored, coauthored, or edited four books in 2024. The Fluency Development Lesson, Closing the Reading Gap (Benchmark Education, June 2024) — a must-have for elementary literacy educators — is a ready-to-implement set of 28 fluency development units organized into five knowledge strands.

Introduce poetry to students in the classroom and beyond with 40 Poems for 40 Weeks: Integrating Meaningful Poetry and Word Ladders into Grades 3–5 Literacy (Routledge; 1st edition, December 2024), an anthology of hand-chosen poems written by well-known, beloved poets.

Wild Brunch: Poems About How Creatures Eat (Charlesbridge, September 2024), a nonfiction poetry picture book collection for kids, invites young wildlife lovers to explore how and why animals eat what they do.

A Tree Is a Community (Books for a Better Earth) from Holiday House, October 2024. A tree is more than just a plant, but a whole ecosystem hiding in plain sight, on street corners and in backyards everywhere. Discover how one tree provides shelter, food, and clean air to a host of animals and insects.

Visit David on his website DavidLHarrison.com, his blog, and on Facebook. Look for his children’s books on all major retailers including Amazon.

Fractured State in the Blighted Earth (Atmosphere Press, September 2024) by R. M. Tembreull. Chaos, the Destroyer, has launched his most aggressive and expansive campaign yet. His objective: initiate the Great Cascade and bring about the Discordant on Earth. The eternal struggle between order and chaos is an inescapable condition of the universe. Caught in the middle is the delicate balance necessary for life to exist and prosper in our world. On Earth, the opposing sides in this timeless conflict are Earth Mother’s Natural Order and Chaos’s Force Corrupted.

You’ll find Raymund on his website TheBlightedEarth.com and Instagram. Look for his books on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In Time Out (September 2024) by Sequoia Rudolph. Where does a 45-year old Special Ed teacher go when her marriage finally slips through the cracks? Into a self-imposed time out in Paradise, of course. Cynthia Ferguson quickly learns that Paradise is not what it’s chalked up to be. Navigating a challenging school system, an evil principal, rambunctious students, and their fiery parents, Ms. Ferguson finds herself being burned by the real heat of Hawai’i. Hilarious, poignant, and provocative, this is a tale about a woman who takes chances, starts over, and finds out that the world can be yours when you step boldly out of your comfort zone.

You’ll find Sequoia on Medium and Amazon.

The Town That Lost Its Colors (September 2024) by Heidi Marshall. Princess Imogen has never spent a night away from the safety of her castle but, with her father the King on other business, she has no choice but to journey to a remote village and do her best to help the people solve a serious problem. Where have the town’s colors gone? Could someone really have taken them, and how? A story written in the tradition of fine tales of courage and respect, with modern themes of inclusion, forgiveness, and kindness. Illustrated by Adrienne Kinsella.

Look for The Town That Lost Its Colors on Amazon.

In Letting Go: poems of life and death (October 2024 ) by Gary Lucero. This collection of poems explores the travails of life, the inevitability of death, and a fantasy realm where nothing is black and white. It’s poetry that deals with aging, disappointment, war, suicide, grief, loss, and death. Its first chapter focuses on life, the second on death, and the third, on a fantasy world filled with flawed characters who inhabit a realm where the gods aid the nobility and ignore the poor, while the realm of the dead threatens them all.